According to an article in the March 28, 2016 issue of The Wall Street Journal (“Artist Skeptical Over Murals’ Fate”, by Peter Grant), Dorothea Rockburne is fighting the Chetrit Group which purchased the Sony Building in 2013 over its plans for the building’s lobby and her two floor to ceiling site specific frescoes painted there. The Chetrits have neither promised to preserve the murals in perpetuity nor agreed to give Rockburne final say over the new surroundings for the paintings (lighting, furnishings), so she is considering seeking a landmark designation for the lobby. Short of winning that status, does Rockburne have any means of ensuring that her works—which she feels encompass the environment around them– remain as she envisioned them?
According to an article in the April 5, 2016 issue of The New York Times (“Foundry is Closing; Degas Debate Goes On”, by William D. Cohan), although the Valsuani foundry which has cast Degas bronzes in recent decades has gone bankrupt and its assets are undergoing liquidation, the fight over whether castings from the foundry can be considered authentic works by Degas or reproductions will continue. Degas scholars have questioned whether the plasters used in the Valsuani castings were made during Degas’ lifetime or after his death. Since Degas allowed only one of his wax and clay figures to be cast in bronze during his lifetime, are any of the bronzes—even the early ones considered authentic by scholars—really the sculptures as Degas envisioned them?